Feds order major Metro-North safety changes after deadly crash

   Mark Lennihan / APA Metro-North passenger train lays on it's side after derailing in the Bronx borough of New York, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2013. By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC NewsFederal officials on Friday ordered New York's Metro-North commuter railroad to make major safety improvements — starting with two crew members at the controls in some places — to prevent a repeat of the high-speed derailment that killed four people and injured 63 over the weekend.The emergency order from the Federal Railroad Administration requires Metro-North to modify its signal system so that it will automatically slow down a train if the engineer fails to do so in spots where there is a dramatic speed change.Until that happens, two qualified crew members must be in place to operate trains on tracks where the speed limit changes by more than 20 mph.Sunday's accident happened on a sharp curve in the Bronx where the speed limit switches from 70 mph to 30 mph. The train was going 82 mph as it approached the Spuyten Duyvil station, officials said.The engineer, William Rockefeller, was alone in the control cab at the time. He told investigators he simply zoned out and came out of "a daze" too late to slow down, his lawyer said.His cab was equipped with a dead man's pedal that is supposed to stop the train in the event that the engineer is incapacitated and takes his foot off it. Metro-North also has a system to automatically halt a train if the engineer blows a red signal, but it doesn't apply to speed changes.“Safety is our highest priority, and we must do everything we can to learn from this tragic crash and help prevent future derailments,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement accompanying the order. “While we assist the National Transportation Safety Board in carrying out its investigation, this Emergency Order will help ensure that other Metro-North trains travel at appropriate, safe speeds.”Slideshow: Pictures of the Metro-North crashMetro-North is the nation's largest commuter rail system, with 775 miles of track in New York and Connecticut and more than 80 million riders annually. The weekend derailment was its fifth major safety incident since May, when a train jumped the tracks in Connecticut, injuring 72 people."FRA has significant concerns with regard to the railroad's compliance with federal railroad safety regulations and the railroad's own operating rules," the order says.The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs Metro-North, said in a statement that it would comply with the order but did not say how it would modify the signal system."We are examining many other possible steps we can take to improve the safety of our railroad operations, and will continue making every effort to enhance customer and employee safety," the MTA said.Congress has ordered railroads nationwide to install a system known as positive train control, which uses computer and satellite tracking to minimize human error. It's supposed to be in place for most of the country’s passenger and freight rail network by the end of 2015, but it's behind schedule most places.New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday he wants to speed up the installation of the system.The focus on safety came as two victims of the derailment were laid to rest: Jim Lovell, 58, an audio technician who did work for TODAY and other NBC programs, and Donna Smith, 54, a paralegal.Related:This story was originally published on Fri Dec 6, 2013 2:44 PM EST

System of winter storm relentless proving deadly in West

Yellow Globe-News Reader Brandy RamirezDebris are strewn along Interstate 40 after a multiple vehicle accident near Vega, Texas, that killed three on Saturday.A dangerous storm that brought snow and heavy rains in the southwestern United States blamed for several deaths from road threatens Thanksgiving travel for millions of people in the Eastern States, forecasters said Saturday.The storm is expected to bring rains to the Southeast on Tuesday and then to the North and bring to the East Coast, possibly interrupting the journey through Wednesday, according to meteorologists at AccuWeather.com."If the storm hugs the coast and is developed to its full potential, can be a nightmare of flight, not only for travellers in the East, but also in the entire nation," said Evan Myers of AccuWeather.com.The holiday of Thanksgiving weekend is one of the most heavily traveled in the United States. Some 39 million people are waiting for the roads from Wednesday to Sunday, centered around Thanksgiving on Thursday, said that the AAA group trip earlier this week.About 3 million people to fly to their destinations, according to AAA.Winter storm warnings are in effect across the country, with a possible ice storm possible snow in Oklahoma and Texas. Dylan Dreyer reports today.Rain and snow have already been linked to several deaths. Motorists stranded and caused accidents in traffic in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and Texas.Three people died in a multiple vehicle accident Friday afternoon in conditions of frost on Interstate 40 West of Amarillo, Texas, said a dispatcher for the State Patrol.In Central - Eastern New Mexico, a 4-year-old girl died when a vehicle that was traveling in it slipped off a road ice and return Friday afternoon, said Emmanuel Gutierrez State Police Sergeant. He wore no seat belt, he said.In Oakland, California, a man was killed on Thursday when a power line fell and he had electrocuted, according to the Contra Costa Times. Another man died trying to avoid debris on a road, the newspaper reported.Principles of the Saturday morning near Sulphur Springs, Texas, the driver of a bus carrying the band of Willie Nelson seemingly lost control and crashed into a highway bridge support. A member of the band, Paul English, broke a hip in the accident.The winter storm was expected to grind through the southern States of the Plains through Sunday night, bringing water, snow and freezing rain and in parts of Northern Texas and the Western half of Oklahoma light snow and frigid conditions, said the national weather service.AccuWeather predicted the storm hit coastal Texas and Louisiana on Monday, eastward along the Gulf Coast on Tuesday and then expand northward.The exact track of the storm is directed toward the coast Tuesday in the Wednesday night still is unknown and is the key to whether the region will be dry weather, rain or snow, AccuWeather, said.The rain could it be sufficiently heavy to delay flights in New Orleans, Atlanta, Charlotte, North Carolina and other airports, according to AccuWeather.Related:Rain, snow and strong winds are punched to the West, and that system time now moves eastward just in time for the Thanksgiving Feast. Miguel Almaguer NBC reportsThis story was originally posted on Sunday, November 24, 2013 12:34 AM ESTCopyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

System of winter storm relentless proving deadly in West

Yellow Globe-News Reader Brandy RamirezDebris are strewn along Interstate 40 after a multiple vehicle accident near Vega, Texas, that killed three on Saturday.A dangerous storm that brought snow and heavy rains in the southwestern United States blamed for several deaths from road threatens Thanksgiving travel for millions of people in the Eastern States, forecasters said Saturday.The storm is expected to bring rains to the Southeast on Tuesday and then to the North and bring to the East Coast, possibly interrupting the journey through Wednesday, according to meteorologists at AccuWeather.com."If the storm hugs the coast and is developed to its full potential, can be a nightmare of flight, not only for travellers in the East, but also in the entire nation," said Evan Myers of AccuWeather.com.The holiday of Thanksgiving weekend is one of the most heavily traveled in the United States. Some 39 million people are waiting for the roads from Wednesday to Sunday, centered around Thanksgiving on Thursday, said that the AAA group trip earlier this week.About 3 million people to fly to their destinations, according to AAA.Winter storm warnings are in effect across the country, with a possible ice storm possible snow in Oklahoma and Texas. Dylan Dreyer reports today.Rain and snow have already been linked to several deaths. Motorists stranded and caused accidents in traffic in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and Texas.Three people died in a multiple vehicle accident Friday afternoon in conditions of frost on Interstate 40 West of Amarillo, Texas, said a dispatcher for the State Patrol.In Central - Eastern New Mexico, a 4-year-old girl died when a vehicle that was traveling in it slipped off a road ice and return Friday afternoon, said Emmanuel Gutierrez State Police Sergeant. He wore no seat belt, he said.In Oakland, California, a man was killed on Thursday when a power line fell and he had electrocuted, according to the Contra Costa Times. Another man died trying to avoid debris on a road, the newspaper reported.Principles of the Saturday morning near Sulphur Springs, Texas, the driver of a bus carrying the band of Willie Nelson seemingly lost control and crashed into a highway bridge support. A member of the band, Paul English, broke a hip in the accident.The winter storm was expected to grind through the southern States of the Plains through Sunday night, bringing water, snow and freezing rain and in parts of Northern Texas and the Western half of Oklahoma light snow and frigid conditions, said the national weather service.AccuWeather predicted the storm hit coastal Texas and Louisiana on Monday, eastward along the Gulf Coast on Tuesday and then expand northward.The exact track of the storm is directed toward the coast Tuesday in the Wednesday night still is unknown and is the key to whether the region will be dry weather, rain or snow, AccuWeather, said.The rain could it be sufficiently heavy to delay flights in New Orleans, Atlanta, Charlotte, North Carolina and other airports, according to AccuWeather.Related:Rain, snow and strong winds are punched to the West, and that system time now moves eastward just in time for the Thanksgiving Feast. Miguel Almaguer NBC reportsThis story was originally posted on Sunday, November 24, 2013 12:34 AM ESTCopyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

'The whole neighborhood's gone': Deadly tornadoes leave path of destruction in Midwest

aCellphone video captures a twister touching down in a central Illinois neighborhood. By M. Alex Johnson and Jeff Black, NBC NewsA powerful storm system rampaged through the Midwest on Sunday, spawning dozens of tornadoes that killed at least six people, injured many others and left devastating damage in parts of Illinois.Brookport, Ill., in Massac County near the Kentucky line, was particularly hard hit. At least two people were confirmed to have died, and police with dogs were going door to door to search for trapped residents. With roads entering the city closed by debris and downed power lines, Brookport authorities imposed a 6 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew.At least four other people were killed in Illinois, the state Emergency Management Agency told NBC News. An 80-year-old man and his 78-year-old sister were killed near New Minden, according to Washington County Coroner Mark Styninger, and unidentified victims were confirmed dead in Washington city and in Unionville."All of a sudden, the wind started picking up, and [my wife] said, 'We've got to get in the basement right now!'" Steve Bucher of Washington told NBC station WEEK of Peoria."Within less than a minute, everything started collapsing inside the house, cracking, sputtering," he said. "Next thing we know, it's light inside the garage."After bringing rain and tornadoes to Illinois, what will this weather system do next? Mike Seidel of The Weather Channel reports.By early evening, 37 people were being treated at St. Francis Hospital in Peoria, seven of them as trauma patients. Numerous injuries were also reported in Massac County, and with communications difficult and many roads impassable, it remained unclear how many other people might be hurt.At WEEK-TV, newscasters had to go off the air abruptly as they realized they themselves were in the path of the twister. According to the National Weather Service, the station's roof was damaged. Steve Smedley / APA storm system spun off multiple tornadoes killing several people and flattening an entire neighborhood.In Tazewell County in central Illinois, emergency crews were responding to a tornado that flattened homes in several neighborhoods. The cities with reported damage include Washington, Perkin and East Peoria, county spokeswoman Sara Sparkman told NBC News. Pictures from Washington showed an expansive trail of wood debris from homes torn apart as the twister laid waste to one neighborhood.East Peoria Mayor Dave Mingus said about 100 homes were damaged in his city of more than 23,000 residents, with 25 to 50 destroyed and uninhabitable.The Red Cross was working with the county to open up shelters in the area for families whose homes were damaged.Altogether, The Weather Channel recorded 40 reports of tornadoes: 16 in Indiana, 14 in Illinois, eight in Kentucky and one each in Missouri and Ohio. There were more than 250 reports of wind damage or high winds across eight states. At least 83,000 customers were without electric power Sunday evening in Illinois, most of those in the Peoria area, said Jonathon Monken, director of the Illinois Emergency management Agency.Rescue teams were deploying to multiple areas across the state, focusing on the hard-hit Washington and Gifford areas, Monken said.Damage extended across the region, with damage reported as far east as Kentucky.Corey Mayes of Corydon in Henderson County, Ky., said he, his wife and their 4-year-old dashed downstairs as a tornado rushed through.A violent storm system spawned tornadoes in central Illinois. NBC's Kevin Tibbles reports. "I yelled at everybody to get down to the basement, and I checked on my family and ran back up," Mayes told NBC station WFIE of nearby Fort Wayne, Ind."About that time, it had already come across the street and was trying to touch back down," he said. "It just sucked back up and blew on over."Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn warned residents that the weather and storms across the state were "very serious."In Chicago, the Baltimore Ravens-Chicago Bears NFL game was delayed because of the weather, and the seating area at Soldier Field was evacuated. The game resumed at about 2:20 p.m. (3:20 p.m. ET) after a nearly two-hour delay.The highest threat area for tornadoes was eastern Illinois into Indiana, southern Michigan, western Kentucky and western Ohio, but dangerous winds were also a concern as the storms move across the Appalachians as well as parts of the Northeast into early Monday, the National Weather Service said.Significant damage was reported in Lebanon, Ind., where Elizabeth MacDougal was in a Starbucks when a possible tornado appeared. "I was looking out the front window of the Starbucks and I was actually on the phone with my mom saying, 'Hey, we're entering some not-so-nice weather here,'" McDougal told NBC station WTHR of Indianapolis."And then all of a sudden, I see this white cloud, and I'm like, 'Oh, that's moving funny,'" she said. "And then my eyes tracked downward, and that's when the debris started to kick up. And that's when I said, 'Mom, I gotta go!'"The windows of the Starbucks were shattered, and vehicles in the parking lot were overturned, WTHR reported.Wind and hail could cause downed trees and scattered power failures across a broad area from Chicago to Buffalo.The Weather Channel predicted that the storm would diminish as it moved east through Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey, but high winds could reach as far as New York on Monday morning.Michelle Acevedo, Christopher Essner, Azhar Fateh, Elisha Fieldstadt, Alastair Jamieson, Christopher E. Nelson and Julmary Zambrano of NBC News contributed to this report.This story was originally published on Sun Nov 17, 2013 6:28 PM EST

'The whole neighborhood's gone': Deadly storm leaves path of destruction in Midwest

cbringing rain and tornadoes to Illinois, what will this weather system do next? Mike Seidel of The Weather Channel reports.By early evening, 37 people were being treated at St. Francis Hospital in Peoria, seven of them as trauma patients. Numerous injuries were also reported in Massac County, and with communications difficult and many roads impassable, it remained unclear how many other people might be hurt.At WEEK-TV, newscasters had to go off the air abruptly as they realized they themselves were in the path of the twister. According to the National Weather Service, the station's roof was damaged. Steve Smedley / APA storm system spun off multiple tornadoes killing several people and flattening an entire neighborhood.In Tazewell County in central Illinois, emergency crews were responding to a tornado that flattened homes in several neighborhoods. The cities with reported damage include Washington, Perkin and East Peoria, county spokeswoman Sara Sparkman told NBC News. Pictures from Washington showed an expansive trail of wood debris from homes torn apart as the twister laid waste to one neighborhood.East Peoria Mayor Dave Mingus said about 100 homes were damaged in his city of more than 23,000 residents, with 25 to 50 destroyed and uninhabitable.The Red Cross was working with the county to open up shelters in the area for families whose homes were damaged.Altogether, The Weather Channel recorded 40 reports of tornadoes: 16 in Indiana, 14 in Illinois, eight in Kentucky and one each in Missouri and Ohio. There were more than 250 reports of wind damage or high winds across eight states. At least 83,000 customers were without electric power Sunday evening in Illinois, most of those in the Peoria area, said Jonathon Monken, director of the Illinois Emergency management Agency.Rescue teams were deploying to multiple areas across the state, focusing on the hard-hit Washington and Gifford areas, Monken said.Damage extended across the region, with damage reported as far east as Kentucky.Corey Mayes of Corydon in Henderson County, Ky., said he, his wife and their 4-year-old dashed downstairs as a tornado rushed through.A violent storm system spawned tornadoes in central Illinois. NBC's Kevin Tibbles reports. "I yelled at everybody to get down to the basement, and I checked on my family and ran back up," Mayes told NBC station WFIE of nearby Fort Wayne, Ind."About that time, it had already come across the street and was trying to touch back down," he said. "It just sucked back up and blew on over."Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn warned residents that the weather and storms across the state were "very serious."In Chicago, the Baltimore Ravens-Chicago Bears NFL game was delayed because of the weather, and the seating area at Soldier Field was evacuated. The game resumed at about 2:20 p.m. (3:20 p.m. ET) after a nearly two-hour delay.The highest threat area for tornadoes was eastern Illinois into Indiana, southern Michigan, western Kentucky and western Ohio, but dangerous winds were also a concern as the storms move across the Appalachians as well as parts of the Northeast into early Monday, the National Weather Service said.Significant damage was reported in Lebanon, Ind., where Elizabeth MacDougal was in a Starbucks when a possible tornado appeared. "I was looking out the front window of the Starbucks and I was actually on the phone with my mom saying, 'Hey, we're entering some not-so-nice weather here,'" McDougal told NBC station WTHR of Indianapolis."And then all of a sudden, I see this white cloud, and I'm like, 'Oh, that's moving funny,'" she said. "And then my eyes tracked downward, and that's when the debris started to kick up. And that's when I said, 'Mom, I gotta go!'"The windows of the Starbucks were shattered, and vehicles in the parking lot were overturned, WTHR reported.Wind and hail could cause downed trees and scattered power failures across a broad area from Chicago to Buffalo.The Weather Channel predicted that the storm would diminish as it moved east through Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey, but high winds could reach as far as New York on Monday morning.Michelle Acevedo, Christopher Essner, Azhar Fateh, Elisha Fieldstadt, Alastair Jamieson, Christopher E. Nelson and Julmary Zambrano of NBC News contributed to this report.This story was originally published on Sun Nov 17, 2013 6:28 PM EST